In
1845, Daniel Day moved from the Antelope Ground at the Woolston Hotel on
the south side of Woolston Road, Itchen, only a few hundred yards across
the river from Southampton. He converted the field on the East side of
the Hotel into a cricket ground and the first match staged on the ground
was in April 1846 when Married of Southampton played the Single. A
pavilion was built on the north side of the ground, the size of the
ground being about 6 acres. The lease of the hotel ran out in 1851 and
Day, who claimed he had spent between £1,000 and £1,200 on
cricket, decided the ground was not viable and moved to Southsea to
manage the East Hampshire Ground there. Day's ground at Itchen was built
over in the 1850s. The Woolston Hotel changed its name to the Railway
Hotel in the 1870s, but since the Second World War it has been known as
the Huntsman.
